SRAM's mid-priced Rival components are at home on any bike, and on any road

As the drop-bar category has evolved and expanded away from road racing into gravel, adventure, and endurance bikes, SRAM’s Rival group has changed with it. Originally just a lower-priced road-race-influenced group with rim brakes and close-ratio gearing, it has grown to include wide-range cassettes, hydraulic disc brakes, and a 1x11option. Now Rival can be found on everything from race bikes, to cyclocross, gravel, adventure, and endurance bikes. SRAM’s groups are generally lighter than the competition and tend to take the simpler route where possible (examples: single-shift paddles, trim-free front shifting). Rival groups are typically found on bikes from $1,500 to about $2,500.

SRAM rival cranks are available in 2x (shown) and 1x configurations, Image courtesy of SRAM

Rival offers tons of options for any bike

Rival Rear Derailleur: Depending on the configuration you choose, you can get Rival with 2x-compatible rear derailleurs in short-cage models for close-ratio cassettes and mid-cage lengths (SRAM WiFLi) for wide-ratio cassettes. The 1x rear derailleur has straight parallelogram and clutch and is not compatible with front derailleurs.

Rival Front Derailleur: SRAM's road groups have a unique front derailleur that it calls Yaw. The cage changes its angle as it moves inboard and outboard. This eliminates the need for trim stops, which simplifies front shifting: one push for the big ring, and one push to return to the small ring. For contrast, Campagnolo and Shimano’s latest groups have multiple trim positions for both the small and big ring.

Rival Hydraulic Brakes: Rival disc brakes are available for both post-mount and flat-mount style frames. The calipers use a dual-piston design like most hydraulic brakes and pads are compatible with the Force and Red brakes. All SRAM hydraulic brake systems use DOT hydraulic fluid, which needs to be flushed routinely or the fluid's properties degrade.

DoubleTap shifters are available for both hydraulic and cable-actuated brakes. Image courtesy of SRAM

Rival Rim Brakes: Rival’s rim brakes are a traditional, center bolt, dual-pivot design. SRAM recently launched a direct-mount rim brake that is compatible with Rival’s controls. The group also has a hydraulic rim brake option, but SRAM appears to be sunsetting this product.

Rival Shifters: Rival includes Double Tap shifters for both cable-actuated and hydraulic brakes and in pairs designed for 1x and 2x drivetrains. Riders shift with a single paddle that sits behind the brake lever. SRAM makes an 11-speed shifter, the S-700, that is not part of the group, but allows you to run Rival components with flat handlebars.

Group History

SRAM has been on a decade-long mission to eliminate the front derailleur. In 2009, when all mountain bike groups were had triple front chainrings and 9-speed rear cassettes, SRAM introduced XX, a 2x10 mountain bike drivetrain that had the range of 3x9, but with less front shifting. Then in 2012, SRAM made an even larger cassette and eliminated the front derailleur all together with the XX1 1x11 mountain bike group. In 2015, SRAM took the 1x drivetrain tech to road, cyclocross, gravel, and adventure bikes with Rival1.

Ride Impressions:
Of all the mechanical shifting systems, SRAM’s is the simplest. Just a single push of the single paddle nestled behind the brake lever shifts the chain up or down. Front shifts are fast, and there's no need to trim the derailleur should there be any chain rub, but they can be occasionally take longer for the chain to move than you would expect.

Rear shifting is good, and fast. Most shifts are trouble free, but there are occasionally sluggish and unrefined shifts, particularly in the higher gears (smaller cogs). The wide-range cassettes–particularly for 1x–seem to be a bit slower shifting than the close-ratio cassettes.

SRAM’s mechanical-shift levers are tight and crisp, with short throws and pronounced detents, and vociferous clicks. The short push/long push shifting pattern keeps things mechanically simple, but, even after years of riding it, I still miss some rear shifts and upshift when I want to downshift because I don’t push the shift paddle quite far enough.

The Rival rim brakes stop you well enough and have decent modulation and power. But compared to similar-priced options from Shimano and Campagnolo, they feel a little soggy. The Rival disc brakes also suffer from a sluggish-feeling lever, but the brakes have very good power and excellent modulation. They’re intuitive and confidence inspiring in the rain, but they can be noisy when they get wet.

SRAM’s mechanical-shift bodies for cable-actuated brakes are medium sized and shaped for left and right hands so they feel natural to hold. The covers are thin, with light cushioning, so they don’t offer much shock absorption. The hydraulic hood bodies are slightly larger, but the real difference between the two is the pronounced peak that contains the hydraulic reservoir. This protrusion is stands out, and not entirely in a flattering way, because everything else in the group is so well designed. But it is big enough to provide another hand hold.

The Rival1 rear deraillure has a clutch for better chain retention. Image courtesy of SRAM

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